flyinghaggis

We used a Chromebox paired up with Signage Live. Seemed to work pretty well but you do need to pay an annual subscription (~ £100 p/a IIRC) for SignageLive (dependent on the number of displays) for their cloud service. To me it seemed more streamlined than going with a WindowsPC based solution though.

Are the folk on here buying it going for the Pixel or Pixel XL?

I was hoping we'd hear more about 'Andromeda' and future direction of Android/Chrome to be honest. The Google Pixel on the face of it appears to be just another high end phone which doesn't offer anything new. Slightly disappointed given the price tag really. The Google Daydream VR headset looks like it could be pretty cool though.

I like the fact that Google is taking a more hands on approach with the pixel line of hardware but as someone who's been using Nexus phones for a couple of years now Im concerned by the move towards a more premium price point. If the USD price is $649 that means we'll probably be paying nearly £600 for it! I'm not sure I really want to go back to spending that kind of money on a handset. It'll have to be something pretty special to justify that kind of price tag. It's about time Google moved forward with it's plans to merge ChromeOS and Android somehow. I like the idea of a touchscreen Android laptop/convertible with the ability to run ChromeOS browser. With a few tweaks that could finally give Google a desktop/laptop OS to compete with OSX and Windows.

Personally I think it sounds tacky, naff and very generic. G-Suite sounds like a low-rent 90's Microsoft Office alternative IMO! I think they'd be better to use the name Google rather than abbreviate it to 'G'! Also, I dislike describing it as a 'suite'. It sounds too narrow in it's focus given what Google offers with their cloud platform. Google Apps sounded better. Why not go with Google Cloud, Google Portal or something along those lines? I guess it's just a name and the apps will remain the same so ultimately there's no impact but I don't get why they'd rebrand it to that? I'm sure they have their reasons though

That looks like it would do the trick when it comes to securing the app itself. I'll give that a try. Cheers! Update: Just tried this and it definitely prevents the user running the app directly themselves so that's much more secure. I'd incorrectly assumed these were just command switches but it turns out they do actually restrict the app on a per user basis (presumably it must add a registry edit to the logged on user acccount to prevent them launching it?). I suspect there might be ways around this restriction by running the vboxmanage shortcut with some custom switches but at least they can't simply run the app directly.

That's the problem. We hide the C: drive and have even created a custom executable to hide the scripted shortcut location and parameters but there's always an old wind9x/3.1 based program they need to run which lets them freely browse the C: drive and find out where it's installed. And if they google Virtualbox with a little bit of investigation they can (and already have) guess where it points to. It's worrying as they've set these applications as being part of the curriculum but nobody appears to have given any thought to the security implications of running development/coding apps on school networks. Most of the other local schools I've spoken to have just installed Python/EasyPHP/Vistual Studio/etc directly onto the computers and given pupils access to run them.

Are the above just command line switch options or does running this command permanently change the way vboxmanage.exe launches. For example if a pupil manages to run vboxmanage.exe directly will it still give them the default range of options after running that command? We already have a customised executable to run a locked down version of the startup script but pupils have been finding ways to launch the vboxmanage.exe program directly bypassing all the security settings the script puts in place?

If they get on the Virtualbox management utility (or find a way to get Vbox to run with command switches or a specific startup script) they could re-enable the network interface on the VM or use the console to add a VM of their own making with access to the school network. This is what's making me want to move to a system where we run the VM's on a central server rather than on client machines as we'd be able lock down security settings more tightly.

That does sound pretty interesting. We have Virtualbox installed on our client PC's with locked down settings (as per this thread) however we've found that pupils keep finding ways of gaining access to the settings. I was thinking our next step should be to implement some kind of VDI server based solution so it would be helpful if you had any guides or links to articles online which would help us create something similar to your setup? Given the requirements in the new computing curriculum this seems to be becoming a common issue. There are so many programming and development utilities they expect pupils to use (Python, PHP, Apache,etc) which really aren't suitable for running on a live network as they give the pupils access to way more than is safe to do so. It's a shame as it's causing quite a lot of friction between ourselves and the computing department. They're asking for pupils to run these apps on live network PCs with access to the internet and network shares/printers/etc but IMHO it simply isn't feasible to give them that kind of access on anything but a separate network isolated, to some degree, from the rest of the school. The problem is the overheads of running such a setup can be pretty heavy in terms of the time it takes to configure/manage it and/or the additional hardware/software required to support it.

I caved in a bought it yesterday so hopefully my rig will run it OK. I have a Geforce 980 but a 3440x1440p monitor so I may need to drop the detail level down a bit to keep it smooth! Just went for the standard version so will need to wait until tomorrow before I can play it.

Just seen a story saying they're planning on releasing a couple of expansion packs for this in the near future which look at though they extend the map. One thing worth bearing in mind is that the Forza Horizons 3 "Ultimate" edition doesn't automatically give you access to these expansions. So even if you buy the £80 (ouch!) ultimate version of the game you'll still have to pony up another £20 for the season pass if you want to access the extra areas. Forza Horizon 3 DLC Pass Announced, Adds to Ultimate Edition's Content - GameSpot It feels a bit underhand to me selling such an expensive "ultimate" version of the game which doesn't include access to the expansion packs which are out in a couple of months time. Given most of the DLC is just cosmetic stuff it's probably more cost effective to get the standard version and then buy the season pass for the expansions at a later date.

I like that it's one of the first cross-platform games which lets you run it on both xbox and Windows providing you buy the digital copy via the MS Store. The reviews are looking really positive as well. The thing which is holding me back is the lack of realism to the driving. I tried the demo and whilst driving along the beach I actually drove out into the ocean to see what would happen. All it does is slow you down slightly! Likewise you can happily plough through a field at 100mph with only a minor speed penalty. I wonder if there'll be any scope for modding it on the PC version as I think the game engine and premise is fantastic but I'd like to see a tweaked version which punishes you more for going off-roading or swimming in your Lamborghini. Hopefully there will be options to customise some of these things.

We've been asked to make the schools MIS system (WCBS 3SYS) available to staff whilst they're away from school working remotely. The system is web-based so it's straightforward enough to publish it to the world over HTTPS. However, some staff have expressed concerns that a single username/password for the system isn't as secure as it needs to be given the sensitivity of the data (pupil/parent/staff personal information) stored within it. Given these concerns we've been looking at potentially using a 3rd party service like Incapsula to secure the system with two-factor authentication. At least that way if someone does manage to get their hands on a member of staff's password it alone won't get them access to the database. The system seems to work by basically changing your DNS to point at the Incapsula's servers and they then act as a gateway, and secure login, for accessing any internally hosted systems. I've noticed a few other providers offering similar services most of which seem to work the same way. Has anyone used Incapsula or any similar services to secure internal websites? Are there any other options for securing an internal web database published over the internet that would be worth looking into? https://youtu.be/bHoRPeW24n4

This is the problem I experienced for anyone else who encounters the same issue. It looks like MS have fixed it now thankfully. Windows 10 may freeze after installing the Anniversary Update - - Microsoft Community

@Steve21 Thanks for the tips. I'll have a think and see if I can put together something.

We have a separate app to launch vbox with the restrictions in place so they aren't using the executable as I didn't' want to pupils to have access to the batch file script which they could easily view. Like yourself I also thought about running this app with another user account in order to block the pupils launching it directly under their own. However, the issue we have with this is that it'll break access to the pupils own home documents area (with is linked to a mapped drive) meaning they won't be able to transfer files back and forth from the host to the VM.

I've just noticed that some of our pupils have found a way to launch "vboxmanage.exe" without the restrictions in place by pinning the Virtualbox app to their taskbar after it has been run and launching it from there! Has anyone else noticed this issue and can anyone think of a way to block this?

Why buy the new handset when you can easily upgrade your current model using the new apple plug Apple Plug Prices are also pretty horrific post referendum with the value of the pound being so low. £820 for a 128gb iPhone 7 plus! Are the airpods just another Bluetooth headset or does apple have some special sauce proprietary protocol which provides better audio quality?

The initial user reviews on Metacritic are pretty mixed and it's averaging 5.0 at the moment which is putting me off slightly but the streams I've seen on YouTube/Twitch look pretty entertaining. Hopefully if it's successful they'll keep on adding content to keep the game fresh as the main criticisms seems to be that it gets kind of repetitive after a while and that there's no multiplayer. I'll probably pick it up on Friday when it's released on PC

https://m.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/4vufpo/windows_10_fully_freezes_after_anniversary_update/ I seem to be encountering the above issue since applying the Windows 10 anniversary update on my home PC. Once I login everything seems fine for about 20 seconds and then all of a sudden everything locks up and I get the following message :- Once this appears I can't click on anything, can't load Task Manager and even CTRL+ALT+DEL wont respond! I've since rolled back to a previous build and it's working OK again but not sure what to do. Nobody on the thread seems to have any concrete suggestions as to what's causing the error Anyone else on here seen this issue?

Some interesting rumours about the nx today Nintendo NX is powered by Nvidia Tegra technology • Eurogamer.net Nintendo NX is a portable console with detachable controllers http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-07-26-nx-is-a-portable-console-with-detachable-controllers Nintendo NX: Everything we know about Nintendo's new mystery console | TechRadar

I guess in our specific situation we want to give pupils general internet access via the VM for a variety of tasks and access Google Apps resources (so to more than just APT software) but prevent them from having access to the host computer or anywhere else on the network other than the internet gateway. So something along the lines of option 1 or 2 is probably what we'd need to do? I hadn't actually realised you could tag with specific VLANs from within Virtualbox.

We had an idea that we could fit an extra physical network card to the computers running Virtualbox then set the host to be connected to the main network via NIC#1 and then route the VM through the second NIC which would be on a separate VLAN on our physical network which only has access to the internet and nothing else on site. That would keep the host usable no the main network whilst still isolating the VM with only internet access. It's not without its failings though as it means that pupils could easily swap the network connections over if they wanted to mess around plus we'd maybe need to setup some kind of authentication to track which pupils are accessing what otherwise we'd be unable to log which specific pupils were accessing stuff online. It feels like a pretty complicated arrangement though so I'd be interested to know whether there's a simpler way to achieve this using software alone? As more stuff moves into the cloud our computing department have been pressuring us to get internet access for the VM's as well but I cant think of a secure way to do it!

I did my CBT last week so I'm looking to get my hands on a 125cc bike of some variety. Sat the CBT on a Honda 125 CBF which seemed OK. I just really want something to commute to work on and maybe for a bit of fun at weekends. I don't plan on bothering with my DAS just now as my commute is mostly through city roads so would be happy with a 125cc. Honda seem to offer several models in that category. The CB125F, CBR125 and the MSX125. Or maybe a Yamaha 125cc model of some variety? The MT-125 looks really nice actually. There are obviously all the cheaper Chinese models but the reviews online on these seem pretty mixed? Any recommendations between the Honda models. The CBR125 looks pretty nice but I'm not sure whether it's really worth the extra monies above a CBF. Any other 125's worth considering as a first bike? Kind of baffled at the selection on offer. Should I go for one of the urban/street, sports, or off-road models? Any first bike suggestions would be appreciated!